Dr. Maria Montessori was born in the town of chiarvaville , Italy in 1870. She was the first women to be accepted into medical school in Rome and the first female physician in Italy.

 

She spent her life observing and studying young children, dedicating her whole being to the growth of early childhood education and the welfare of children.

 

Montessori was the first to observe that children needed their own space; she is responsible for introducing the child-size furniture that we see today in Nurseries and kindergartens all over the world. She observed that all children go through sensitive periods for learning (sensitive periods for language, order, detail, reading and writing and mathematics to name but a few.)And forced learning outside of these sensitive periods is not only useless but also harmful to the child.  She observed that children learn best in a smaller age---group environment. Older children take on the role of teachers instilling them with confidence and responsibility and younger children look up to their peers and learn from them with ease.

 

For more than 100 years, the Montessori Method has been tried, tested and proved in classrooms all over the world. In recent years, extensive scientific research has proven the philosophies that Montessori put into place in her first Children's House in 1907.